Anders Liens doctoral thesis finds little difference in Islam-criticism in Norway, Sweden and Denmark

Congratulations to researcher Anders Nima Jafarnejad Lien on his doctoral thesis, Counterpublic Discourses in Facebook Comment Sections – A Comparative Analysis of Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish (Social) Media Discourse on Islam.

The study examines Scandinavian discourses on Islam on Facebook. Lien explores 15 different newsmedia in Norway, Sweden and Denmark and their attitudes and positions on Islam on their Facebook profiles, as well as their comment sections.

Excerpt from abstract:

The objectives of this dissertation are twofold: First, the dissertation seeks to
contribute to existing literature on Scandinavian discourse on Islam by comparing
Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish content on Facebook, a central arena for news as
well as public debate. Second, it aims to contribute to existing literature on
counterpublics as it attempts to analyse to what extent counterpublic discourses
appear in mainstream news outlets’ comment sections on Facebook. Existing
research on online counterpublics has largely focused on (progressive and left-wing)
counterpublic collectives in secluded communicative spaces, such as blogs,
discussions forums, and alternative news sites. In contrast, this thesis analyses (both
Islam-hostile and Islam-sympathetic) counterpublic discourses expressed in the
comment sections of highly influential, mainstream news media.

Liens findings are somewhat different than previous research has shown. The study shows little difference in Islam-criticism in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and it seems to be more accepted in the Swedish public to think something about Islam, especially since 2015.

Read the full disertation here or at Nord Open Research Archive

Anders Lien is now lecturer at Nord Universitet.